Supplier news

BASF Specialty Products selected Nterline technology to manage its marketing database and report channel and end-user sales. Nterline’s DataConduit.com marketing database technology organizes wholesale and retail sales data and makes the data accessible to sales and marketing managers through online reporting tools. The Web-based system provides a real-time view of in-season end-user sales by product, distribution partner and region or territory. Users will be able to run year-over-year comparisons, and in the future, distributors using the technology also might be able to see end-user sales in their standard management reports and gain a broader perspective of their business.

Three new service agreements available through Bayer Environmental Science offer options for reducing costs of guaranteed mole-cricket and fire-ant control using Chipco Choice. Bayer guarantees insect control with Chipco Choice when it’s applied by the company’s network of certified applicators. The company is offering three service agreements to defray costs. First is the Choice two-year service agreement. This plan covers two years of insecticide treatments. An initial application of Chipco Choice for mole-cricket and fire-ant control is followed in the second year with a custom application of new Allectus turf insecticide to provide broad-spectrum control of insects above and below ground, including white grubs. The cost is $345 per acre per year. Second is the Chipco Choice six-month service agreement. This less-expensive option guarantees six months of mole cricket control. One slit-application of Chipco Choice can provide better mole cricket control than a single application of some other registered mole cricket products. The cost is $300 per acre. Third is the Chipco Choice four-month service agreement. This one broadcast application provides mole-cricket control for four months at a cost of $280 per acre.

Bayer Environmental Science’s business group will move its North American operations from Montvale, N.J., and Birmingham, Ala., to Research Triangle Park, N.C., the Region Americas headquarters for Bayer CropScience. Bayer Environmental Science is a business group of Bayer CropScience. The move is intended to increase efficiencies within the company by bringing all three of its business groups – BioScience, Crop Protection and Environmental Science – together in one location. The move, projected for mid-2005, will allow closer coordination among these business groups and the company’s support functions.

Club Car president and c.e.o. Phil Tralies says the golf industry needs to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to increasing participation.
“Those of us who depend on the health of the game to support our business should be willing to invest in programs that grow the game,” Tralies told attendees at the fifth annual Golf 20/20 conference in St. Augustine, Fla., in November. “We should not expect others to do what we’re not doing ourselves.”
Tralies suggests starting close to home. Club Car recently began sponsoring free golf lessons for employees who want to learn the game. The lessons are part of the Link Up 2 Golf player development program offered at The First Tee of Augusta. Link Up 2 Golf was developed by Golf 20/20, a collaborative effort of the golf industry to accelerate growth and participation. Club Car is paying for a pilot group of employees to participate in the Link Up 2 Golf program and hopes to expand the offer to at least 100 employees in 2005.

Deere & Co.’s worldwide net income was $356.7 million, or $1.41 per share, for the quarter ending Oct. 31, compared with $70.6 million for the same period last year.
For the year, net income was $1.406 billion, or $5.56 per share, versus $643.1 million, or making the total for 2004 more than twice that of 2003.
Worldwide net sales and revenues grew 32 percent to $5.207 billion for the fourth quarter, and increased 29 percent to $19.986 billion for the year. Net sales of the equipment operations were $4.612 billion for the quarter and $17.673 billion for the year, compared with $3.375 billion and $13.349 billion for the same periods last year.

FMC Corp. signed a development agreement with Bayer CropScience for the development of new products that combine two active ingredients and will be introduced to the professional turf and ornamental market. The two companies will co-market the products. Additional announcements about these products are expected in the near future. FMC Specialty Products Business makes high-performance insecticides, miticides and herbicides for use by pest management, tree, lawn care, and golf course professionals.

FMC Corp. partnered with Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha Ltd. to market the insecticide flonicamid to the nursery and greenhouse markets. ISK also granted FMC nonexclusive development and distribution rights to a fungicide for use in the specialty markets.
The agreement between FMC and ISK grants FMC exclusive rights to develop, market and distribute flonicamid in all the Americas except Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Flonicamid is a class of chemistry with a mode of action that’s effective against economically important and disease-transmitting pests such as aphids and whiteflies. It will be marketed in the United States under the name Aria insecticide. The product has a high degree of target pest selectivity and is safe for plants and can be a new tool in integrated pest management programs. In the United States, registration was obtained for the greenhouse market and is pending for nursery applications. Commercialization for flonicamid is expected to begin in the first half of 2005.
ISK also has granted FMC nonexclusive development and distribution rights to an ISK fungicide for use in some specialty markets in the United States.

John Deere Golf & Turf One Source added a new partner – Bayco Golf, which manufactures a variety of products from rakes and flags to ball washers and spike brushes. With the addition of Bayco to the One Source program, these accessories will be available within one day of an order.

The John Deere Golf & Turf One Source program was chosen to provide products and services during the construction and future maintenance of Pendleton Golf Course in Ladysmith, Va. The project, a par-72, 7,100-yard championship golf course, is designed by Thomas Walker and will be constructed by Raven Golf Construction. The course is the first phase of Pendleton Community, a 3,500-unit residential and mixed-use development.

Plant Health Care, a provider of natural products for plants and soil, entered a long-term agreement for product development and commercialization with The Scotts Co. The agreement combines Plant Health Care’s expertise in mycorrhizal fungi, bacterial ingredients and related products with Scotts’ proficiency in consumer retail product development. Scotts will retain exclusive rights to use Plant Health Care’s proprietary technology and plant products, which have been shown to improve plant health, in consumer markets.

Redexim Charterhouse authorized two new distributors – MTI Distributing and Midwest Turf and Irrigation – to carry its complete line of professional turf equipment. MTI Distributing is located in Brooklyn Center, Minn., and a branch office is in Fargo, N.D. Its territory will include Minnesota, North Dakota, parts of South Dakota and Wisconsin. Midwest Turf & Irrigation is located in Omaha, Neb., and will be responsible for the state of Nebraska, part of South Dakota and western Iowa.

Simplot Partners’ northeast division was acquired by Harrell’s Fertilizer and two former Simplot Partners turf sales managers. The new independent company will be known as Harrell’s Turf Specialty LLC and will be a distributor of fertilizer and chemicals to the golf course and sports turf industries in the Northeast. The company was created by Harrell’s Fertilizer with former Simplot managers, David Schermerhorn and Don Hollinger.